Manuel Rivera-Ortiz 2016 Documentary Photography & Film Grants

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The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation is calling for documentary photography and film projects for 2016 and invites professional and emerging photographers and film makers in all countries to participate.

Eligible for entry are projects about human suffering and unrest, forgotten communities, exploited lands and people, on communities ravaged by war, poverty, famine, disease, and the exploitation of global resources.

The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation will award two $5,000 grants in 2016 — one for the completion of a photography project proposal and one for an already completed documentary film.

Proposed photography projects and submitted portfolios must be works of non-fiction and must be based on such pressing social issues as health, poverty, oppression, war, famine, religious/political persecution and similar topics. Proposals must be for new or continuing projects. Portfolios should be a representative sampling of your documentary work.

Film entries must be individual, stand-alone non-fiction documentary films of 10 – 30 minutes in length and must have been completed no earlier than two years prior to the 31 March 2016 closing date of the submission call. Film submissions may be either an original subject feature or a historical subject feature. Submissions may be produced in actual occurrence, or employ partial reenactment (if needed), stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is strictly on fact and not fiction. The film must show real characters and not actors portraying the roles of real characters. Dialogue and narration can be produced in any language. All non-English dialogue and narration must be provided with English subtitles.

Photography projects will be selected in three rounds by a panel of professionals representing all branches of the documentary photography industry. Films will be judged in two rounds.

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